Policy:Universal Code of Conduct/Enforcement guidelines

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Wikimedia Foundation Universal Code of Conduct

• Policy
• Enforcement guidelines
• Coordinating Committee (U4C) (charter)
• Frequently asked questions
• Project overview
• Training modules

1. UCoC Enforcement Guidelines

These Enforcement Guidelines describe how the community and Wikimedia Foundation will be able to achieve the goals of the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC). This includes, among other topics: promoting understanding of the UCoC, engaging in proactive work to prevent violations, developing principles for responsive work to UCoC violations, and supporting local enforcement structures.

The UCoC applies to all online and offline Wikimedia spaces. Therefore, enforcing the UCoC is a shared responsibility. In line with the movement value of subsidiarity, this should be done at the most local level possible.

The Enforcement Guidelines provide an outline for the interaction of current and future enforcement structures, seeking to create the groundwork for an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC.

1.1 Translations of the UCoC Enforcement Guidelines

The original version of the UCoC Enforcement Guidelines is in English. It will be translated into various languages used on Wikimedia projects. If any difference arises in the meaning between the English version and a translation, decisions will be based on the English version.

2. Preventive work

This section aims to provide guidelines for Wikimedia communities and affiliated individuals to be aware of the UCoC, to fully understand and adhere to it. To that end, this section will detail recommendations for raising awareness of the UCoC, handling translations of the UCoC, and promoting voluntary adherence to the UCoC where appropriate or necessary.

2.1 Notification and confirmation of the UCoC

The UCoC applies to everyone who interacts and contributes to Wikimedia projects. It also applies to official in-person events, and related spaces hosted on third party platforms as a baseline of behavior for collaboration on Wikimedia projects worldwide.

We recommend that the UCoC be added to Wikimedia Terms of Use.

Additionally, the following individuals need to confirm their adherence to the UCoC:

• All Wikimedia Foundation staff, Board of Trustee members, Wikimedia affiliate board members and staff;
• Any representative of a Wikimedia affiliate or aspiring Wikimedia affiliate (such as, but not limited to: an individual, or group of individuals who is seeking to promote and/or collaborate a Wikimedia sponsored event, group, study, either on or off-wiki in a research setting); and
• Any individual who wants to use the Wikimedia Foundation trademark in an event such as, but not limited to: events branded with Wikimedia trademarks (such as by including them in the event's title) and representation of the Wikimedia organization, community, or project at an event (such as, but not limited to, a presenter or a booth operator).

2.1.1 Promoting UCoC awareness

In order to improve awareness, a link to the UCoC should be accessible on or at:

• User and event registration pages;
• Footers on Wikimedia projects and edit confirmation pages for logged-out users (where appropriate and technically possible);
• Footers on the websites of recognized affiliates and user groups;
• Prominently communicated at in-person, remote, and hybrid events; and
• Anywhere else deemed appropriate by local projects, affiliates, user groups, and event organizers

2.2 Recommendations for UCoC training

The U4C Building Committee, with support from the Wikimedia Foundation, should develop and implement training to provide a common understanding of the UCoC and skills for its implementation. Relevant stakeholders should be consulted in the development of training, including, but not limited to: Affiliates, the Affiliations Committee, Arbitration Committees, Stewards and other Advanced Rights Holders, T&S and legal, and others as it deems beneficial to providing a complete view of the UCoC.

These trainings are intended for people who want to be part of UCoC enforcement processes, or those who want to be informed about the UCoC.

The training will be set up in independent modules covering general information, identification of violations and support, and complex cases and appeals. After the first U4C is onboarded, they should maintain and update the training modules as needed.

Local communities and Wikimedia Affiliates who want to provide training at their community level will get financial support from the Wikimedia Foundation to implement training.

Training modules should be made available in different formats and on different platforms for easy access.

Participants who complete a module should have the option of having their completion publicly acknowledged.

The following sets of trainings should be available:

Module A - Orientation (UCoC - General)

• This module will help to ensure a common understanding of the UCoC and its implementation
• It will explain concisely what the UCoC is and what kind of enforcement will be expected, as well as what tools are available to help report violations

Module B - Identification and Reporting (UCoC - Violations)

• This module will give people the ability to identify UCoC violations, understand reporting processes and learn how to use reporting tools
• It will detail the type of violation, how to identify reportable instances in their local context, how and where to make reports, and optimal handling of cases within UCoC processes
• Where applicable, training will also focus on specific parts of the UCoC, such as harassment and abuses of power

Modules C - Complex cases, Appeals (UCoC - Multiple Violations, Appeals)

• These modules are a prerequisite to joining the U4C, and are recommended for prospective U4C applicants and advanced rights holders
• This module should cover two specific topics:
  • C1- Handling complex cases (UCoC - Multiple Violations): This will cover cross-wiki cases, long term harassment, identifying credibility of threats, effective and sensitive communication, and protecting the safety of victims and other vulnerable people
  • C2 - Handling appeals, closing cases (UCoC - Appeals): This will cover handling UCoC appeals
• These modules will be instructor-led and tailored trainings, provided to U4C members and applicants, and community-elected functionaries who have signed the Access to Nonpublic Personal Data Policy
• The materials for these instructor-led trainings, such as individual modules, slides, questions, etc., should be available publicly

3. Responsive work

This section aims to provide guidelines and principles for processing reports of UCoC violations, and recommendations for local enforcement structures dealing with UCoC violations. To that end, this section will detail important principles for processing reports, recommendations for the creation of a reporting tool, suggested enforcement for different levels of violations, and recommendations for local enforcement structures.

3.1 Principles for filing and processing of UCoC violations

Reports:

• Reporting of UCoC violations should be possible by the target of the violation, as well as by uninvolved third parties that observed the incident
• Reports should be capable of covering UCoC violations, whether they happen online, offline, in a space hosted by a third party, or a mix of spaces
• It should be possible for reports to be made publicly or with varying degrees of privacy
• Credibility and verifiability of accusations should be investigated thoroughly to properly assess risk and legitimacy
• Users who continually send bad faith or unjustified reports risk facing loss of reporting privileges
• Accused individuals should have access to the particulars of the alleged violation made against them unless such access would risk danger or likely harm to the reporter or others’ safety
• Resources for translation should be provided by the Wikimedia Foundation when reports are provided in languages that designated individuals do not speak

Guidance for processing violations:

• The outcome of a case should be proportional to the severity of the violation
• Cases should be judged in an informed way, which makes use of context, balanced against the principles of the UCoC
• Cases should be resolved within a consistent time frame, with timely updates provided to participants if it is prolonged

Transparency:

• Provide a public archive of cases, while preserving privacy and security in non-public cases
• Publish basic statistics about UCoC violations and reporting while honoring principles of minimal data collection and respect for community members’ privacy

3.1.1 Providing resources for processing cases

Enforcement of the UCoC by local governance structures should be supported in multiple ways. Communities will be able to choose from different mechanisms or approaches based on several factors such as: the capacity of their enforcement structures, approach to governance, and community preferences. Some of these approaches can include:

• An Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) for a specific Wikimedia project
• An ArbCom shared amongst multiple Wikimedia projects
• Advanced rights holders enforcing local policies consistent with the UCoC in a decentralized manner
• Panels of local administrators enforcing policies
• Local contributors enforcing local policies through community discussion and agreement

Communities should continue to handle enforcement through existing means where they do not conflict with the UCoC.

3.1.2 Enforcement by type of violations

This section details a non-complete list of the different types of violations, along with the potential enforcement mechanism pertaining to it.

• Violations involving threats of any sort of physical violence
  • Handled by the Wikimedia Trust & Safety team
• Violations involving litigation or legal threats
  • Cases should be quickly sent to the Wikimedia Foundation Legal team, or, when appropriate, other professionals who can appropriately evaluate the merit of the threats
• Violations involving the nonconsensual disclosure of personally identifiable information
  • Generally handled by users with oversight or edit suppression permissions
  • Occasionally handled by Trust & Safety
  • If this kind of violation invokes a legal obligation, the case will be quickly sent to the Wikimedia Foundation Legal team or, when appropriate, other professionals who can appropriately evaluate the merits of the case
• Violations related to affiliate governance
  • Handled by the Affiliations Committee
• Systematic failure to follow the UCoC
  • Handled by U4C
  • Some examples of systematic failure include:
    • Lack of local capacity to enforce the UCoC
    • Consistent local decisions that conflict with the UCoC
    • Refusal to enforce the UCoC
    • Lack of resources or lack of will to address issues
• On-wiki UCoC violations
  • UCoC violations that happen across multiple wikis: Handled by global sysops and stewards and the bodies that handle single-wiki UCoC violations or handled by the U4C;
  • UCoC violations that happen on a single wiki: Handled by individual Wikimedia projects according to their existing guidelines
    • Simple UCoC violations such as vandalism should be handled by existing enforcement structures through existing means, where they do not conflict with these guidelines
• Violations in technical spaces
  • Handled by Technical Code of Conduct Committee
• Off-wiki violations
  • Handled by the U4C where no local governance structure (eg. ArbCom) exists, or if the case is referred to them by the enforcement structure that would otherwise be responsible
  • In some cases, it may be helpful to report the off-wiki violations to enforcement structures of the relevant off-wiki space. This does not preclude existing local and global enforcement mechanisms from acting on the reports
• Violations at in-person events and spaces
  • Existing enforcement structures often provide rules of behavior and enforcement in off-wiki spaces. These include friendly space policies and conference rules
  • Enforcement structures handling these cases can refer them to the U4C
  • In instances of events hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, Trust & Safety provides event policy enforcement

3.2 Recommendations for a reporting tool

A centralized reporting and processing tool for UCoC violations will be developed and maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation. It should be possible to make reports through MediaWiki with this tool. The purpose is to lower the technical barrier for reporting and processing UCoC violations. Reports should include relevant actionable information or provide a documentation record of the case at hand. The reporting interface should allow the reporter to provide details to whomever is responsible for processing that particular case. This includes information such as, but not limited to:

• How the reported behavior violates the UCoC
• Who or what has been harmed by this violation of the UCoC
• The date and time at which the incident(s), occurred
• The location(s) of the incident(s)
• Other information to allow enforcement groups to best handle the matter

The tool should operate under the principles of ease-of-use, privacy and security, flexibility in processing, and transparency.

Individuals charged with enforcing the UCoC are not required to use this tool. They may continue to work with whatever tools they deem appropriate, as long as cases are handled according to the same principles of ease-of-use, privacy and security, flexibility in processing, and transparency.

3.3 Principles and recommendations for enforcement structures

Where possible, we encourage existing enforcement structures to take up the responsibility of receiving reports of and dealing with UCoC violations, in accordance with the guidelines stated here. To ensure that enforcement of the UCoC remains consistent across the movement, we recommend that the following baseline principles should be applied when handling UCoC violations.

3.3.1 Fairness in process

We encourage enforcement structures in developing and maintaining supportive conflict-of-interest policies. These should help admins or others determine when to abstain or disengage from a report when they are closely involved in the issue.

All parties should have the opportunity to give their perspective, but this may be limited to protect privacy and safety. Feedback from others can also be invited to help provide more information, perspective, and context.

3.3.2 Transparency of process

The U4C, in line with its purpose and scope as defined in 4.1, should provide documentation on the effectiveness of UCoC enforcement actions and their relation to common violations throughout the movement. They should be supported by the Wikimedia Foundation in conducting this research. The goal of this documentation is to aid enforcement structures in developing best practices for enforcing the UCoC.

Wikimedia projects and affiliates, when possible, should maintain pages outlining policies and enforcement mechanisms in line with the UCoC policy text. Projects and affiliates with existing guidelines or policies in contradiction to the UCoC policy text should discuss changes to conform with global community standards. Updating or creating new local policies should be done in a way that does not conflict with the UCoC. Projects and affiliates may request advisory opinions from the U4C about potential new policies or guidelines.

For Wikimedia-specific conversations occurring on related space hosted on third party platforms (e.g. Discord, Telegram, etc.), Wikimedia’s Terms of Use may not apply. They are covered by that specific website's Terms of Use and conduct policies. Nevertheless, the behavior of Wikimedians on related space hosted on third party platforms can be accepted as evidence in reports of UCoC violations. We encourage Wikimedia community members who moderate Wikimedia-related spaces on third party platforms to incorporate respect of the UCoC into their policies The Wikimedia Foundation should seek to encourage best practices for third-party platforms that discourage the continuation of on-wiki conflicts to their spaces.

3.3.3 Appeals

An action taken by an individual advanced rights holder should be appealable to a local or shared enforcement structure other than the U4C. If no such enforcement structure exists, then an appeal to the U4C can be permissible. Aside from this arrangement, local communities may allow appeals to a different individual advanced rights holder.

Enforcement structures should set standards for accepting and considering appeals based on relevant contextual information and mitigating factors. These factors include, but are not limited to: verifiability of the accusations, the length and effect of the sanction, and whether there is a suspicion of abuse of power or other systemic issues. The acceptance of an appeal is not guaranteed.

Appeals are not possible against certain decisions made by the Wikimedia Foundation Legal department. Enforcement structures should seek informed perspectives on cases in order to establish a basis to grant or decline an appeal. Information should be handled sensitively, with care for the privacy of the people involved and the decision making process.

To achieve this goal, we recommend that enforcement structures should consider different factors when reviewing appeals. These may include, but not be limited to:

• The severity and harm caused by the violation
• Prior histories of violations
• Severity of sanctions being appealed
• Length of time since the violation
• Analysis of the violation in contact
• Suspicions of a possible abuse of power or other systemic issue